SPRINGFIELD - Jason D. Strickland will spend 12 to 15 years in state prison on charges in the child abuse case that left his stepdaughter Haleigh Poutre with a severe brain injury.

Judge Judd J. Carhart Thursday imposed consecutive eight- to 10-year and four- to five-year state prison terms, saying Strickland's "action, or inaction" had caused substantial harm to the child and that he had violated one of life's most precious gifts - the care of a child.

A jury on Nov. 26 convicted Strickland in Hampden Superior Court of charges he allowed serious injury to be caused to the then 11-year-old girl in 2005. The defense had argued that Strickland had believed his late wife, Holli A. Strickland, Haleigh's adoptive mother, when she told him the child was self-abusive.

The case prompted a major overhaul of the state's child protection agency when it was determined the former Department of Social Services received at least 12 reports of abuse or neglect about Haleigh between 2001 and 2005 and had been involved with her case since 1998. It also drew national attention when the state sought to remove the child, left in a comatose state, from life support; those efforts were dropped when she began to show signs of improvement.

Photo by Don Treeger / The RepublicanAllison Avrett, the biological mother of Haleigh Poutre, weeps in Superior court as the judge reads the sentence for Jason D. Strickland.

Allison L. Avrett, Haleigh's biological mother and Holli Strickland's sister, who attended Thursday's hearing, said she was torn by the judge's sentencing. She said she felt sorry for Jason Strickland's family but no matter the number of years he spends behind bars, it is "less than the sentence Haleigh has."

Haleigh, now 14, is in the Franciscan Children's Hospital in Boston. She is in the custody of the new state Department of Children and Families. Officials have said they want to find an adoptive home for Haleigh.

Asked if she is going to try to adopt Haleigh, said, "You'll have to talk to my attorney."

In 2006, a year after Haleigh's serious brain injury, Avrett filed a lawsuit against the state, saying she was coerced into giving the girl up for adoption and now is deprived of her companionship. She is seeking $12.5 million in the suit, which is pending.

"We are gratified justice has been done," said the prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Laurel H. Brandt. The state prison terms imposed by the judge mirrored her requested sentencing; she had also asked for an additional 2 1/2-year house of correction sentence, but Carhart made that term concurrent with the prison sentencing.

Brandt said that since 2006 Haleigh has had periods of time when she suffers from nightmares and has a negative self-image, thinking she is bad. The prosecutor said Haleigh remembers getting hit with hands, feet and a belt and having bruises and red marks on her face. Brandt did not say whom Haleigh remembers getting hit by.

"The people this child relied on to love and protect her abused her," Brandt said.

Defense attorney Alan Black, who has filed a notice of appeal in the case, had asked Carhart to consider sentencing Strickland to the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow instead of state prison.

Black described Strickland as a hard-working individual who had no previous involvement with law enforcement and got wrapped up in a situation that existed before he met Holli A. Strickland. The defense submitted numerous letters from family and friends, all of which, Black said, described Jason Strickland as a warm, human friend who is always reliable.

Bobbi Strickland, Jason Strickland's mother, flew in from North Carolina for the sentencing. She said in an interview before the hearing that her son was being made a scapegoat for the actions of others.

Photo by Don Treeger / The RepublicanJason D. Strickland stands for his sentencing in Hampden Superior Court on Thursday.

"Everything in this case has been against us," Bobbi Strickland, who attended much of the trial, said.

She said she was shocked that testimony from medical personnel and counselors who had long diagnosed and were monitoring and treating Haleigh as self-abusive was not allowed in at the trial. Bobbi Strickland said that she had witnessed Haleigh's episodes of self-abuse.

The charge relating to the brain injury for which Strickland was convicted is called "assault and battery on a child with serious bodily injury," and the jury found him guilty under the theory of permitting another person to inflict the injury.

Those charges carried a maximum sentence of five years in state prison, and it was for those charges that Carhart imposed terms of four to five years.

The state alleged that the serious brain injury happened on Sept. 10, 2005, the day before Haleigh Poutre was brought to Noble Hospital in Westfield.

A second charge for which Strickland was convicted was assault and battery on a child with bodily injury, also on the theory that he permitted another to commit the act.

Strickland was convicted of two counts of assault and battery on a child with a dangerous weapon, with one count specifying a bat and one a "wand, stick or tube." In the first instance the state claimed that Strickland's late wife Holli hit Haleigh with a bat sometime in the summer of 2005 on the leg, and that Jason Strickland was present, making him a "joint venturer." On those charges, he received the eight- to 10-year sentences.

The fifth charge for which he was convicted was assault and battery, sometime in the spring or summer of 2005. The prosecution said he hit Haleigh on the head with his hand. He received the concurrent house of correction sentence for the assault and battery charge.

Holli Strickland was dead soon after police arrested her and Jason Strickland on the charges soon after the child's admission to Noble Hospital. Police said Holli Strickland's death was a murder-suicide at the hands of her grandmother, Constance Young. The older woman had also adopted Holli as her daughter. No information about Holli's death was allowed to be presented at trial.

Avrett turned care of Haleigh over to Holli A. Strickland and then gave her to Holli for adoption in 1998 before she met Jason Strickland and when Haleigh was 4.